Police: Motorist who struck, killed skateboarder in South Daytona was high

Thursday

May 1, 2014 at 8:39 AMSep 16, 2014 at 8:49 PM

By Lyda Longalyda.longa@news-jrnl.com

SOUTH DAYTONA — Because she is only 3 years old, Marlie Wilson doesn’t understand that her father Stephen Wilson is never coming home again.Her mother worries that by the time the youngster does comprehend what happened to her dad, the child may not remember him.“She had such a short time with him,” Catherine Deering said about her daughter and her husband Thursday afternoon outside the county jail where the woman accused of killing Wilson appeared before a judge.Jody Ann Arcuri was charged with DUI manslaughter late Wednesday after she surrendered at the Volusia County Branch Jail. The new charge was added after the results of a toxicology test came back earlier this week from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The report states Arcuri, 31, was drunk and high on drugs on Feb. 3 when she plowed into the 22-year-old Wilson as he skateboarded in the bicycle lane along the 1700 block of South Ridgewood Avenue. Both Arcuri and Wilson were heading north that afternoon. Wilson died instantly at the scene.As Arcuri appeared before County Judge Chris Kelly at the jail, both Deering and Wilson’s mother, Joanne Garner, stood up in the tiny courtroom and held back tears as they talked about Wilson and Marlie and implored Kelly to keep Arcuri incarcerated.The day of the accident, police searched Arcuri’s car and found drugs and drug paraphernalia in her 2012 Subaru. The stash included cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana, the arrest report states. Police say they also found glass pipes.Arcuri’s blood was drawn and sent off to the state lab and the results showed her blood alcohol content was 0.092, just higher than the 0.08 considered by law to be too drunk to drive. She also had a cocktail of cocaine, methamphetamine, diazepam and other drugs in her system, the report shows.Thursday afternoon as Wilson’s family recounted the fatal crash and that Wilson will never get to see Marlie grow up, Arcuri stood impassively facing Kelly.“She doesn’t care about what she does and no amount of sorry for what she’s done is going to make it better,” Garner told the judge.Deering then told Kelly that she had a handful of pictures of Wilson playing with his daughter and she wanted the judge to see them. Kelly asked Deering to hand the photographs to the assistant prosecutor. Kelly then asked Arcuri if she had anything to say and she shook her head.Garner and Deering left the courtroom and vowed to be at every court hearing Arcuri is required to attend to make sure Arcuri “gets what she deserves.”Garner said Marlie asks about her father everyday and wants to know, “Why is daddy not here?”“We have tried to explain to her in every way that we could that daddy is not coming back, but how do you explain that to a 3-year-old?” Garner said, tears welling up in her eyes. “He will never be able to see her go on her first date or walk her down the aisle. She misses him. We all miss him dearly.”Arcuri, who pleaded no contest to possession of cocaine in 2006, is being held at the county jail on $50,000 bail. She has also been charged with possession of cocaine, possession of marijuana, possession of schedule II substance, possession of schedule III substance and possession of schedule I substance in excess of three grams.If convicted of the DUI manslaughter offense, Arcuri could face up to 15 years in prison.